Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) An online passport renewal application service that has been on a trial run in recent months will be fully implemented starting next year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.
MOFA initiated a trial run on Sept. 3 to allow applicants to apply online and collect their new passport 14 days later at a designated Bureau of Consular Affairs office under MOFA by showing their national identification card and online application receipt.
Before the trial run began, people in Taiwan had to personally visit Bureau of Consular Affairs offices around the country to apply to renew their passports.
Eligibility during the trial run was limited to Taiwanese nationals currently living in Taiwan with a household registration and no record of a stolen or missing passport over the past decade, whose personal records on their expired passport did not need to be changed.
In November, MOFA relaxed some of the restrictions, allowing Taiwanese nationals who were living overseas but still had household registrations in Taiwan to apply as well.
MOFA also scrapped the requirement for applicants to have no record of a stolen or missing passport for the past decade, and it shortened the waiting time to 10 days from the previous 14.
During the trial run, MOFA was accepting a maximum of 500 applications a day.
In a press release Tuesday, MOFA said that starting Jan. 1, it will remove the daily maximum cap for applicants and fully operate the service.
According to MOFA, Taiwanese nationals who need to renew their expired passport can log in to the Chinese-language website at https://epass.boca.gov.tw/Default.html and enter their natural person certificate number to begin their application.
MOFA estimates that the service will benefit 200,000 to 300,000 passport renewal applicants each year once it officially rolls out in 2025.
